Science Methods Last Blog

    Hey Everyone!  How are we already at the end of the semester?  Time has flown by so fast.  I am so excited for student teaching next semester.  I have really enjoyed working in the classroom I have been placed in for clinical.  I was placed in kindergarten for this semester and student teaching.  The students are all very sweet and eager to learn.  I have learned so much in science methods thus far.  The work I am most proud of for this month would be the lesson I was able to teach for this class.  I was able to teach my lesson during the students STEAM day.  My lesson included literacy, science, and math.  The students were able to read about the mayflower, then they built their very own mayflower out of tin foil.  The students predicted if their boat would sink or float and the students counted how many passengers they put on their boat.  I really enjoyed teaching this lesson and being able to have the students so interactively involved in the lesson.  I have noticed kindergarten students need to be very hands on and have interactive task to stay engaged in the lesson and with the content.  I encountered struggle with some of the parts of the unit last week.  I was able to ask Dr. Parker for an example of the unit to see exactly what some of the sections were looking for.  This has really helped me to understand the unit so much better.  I look forward to completing my science unit and using it in my future classroom.  I have learned and observed the power of integration of all subjects into one big lesson.  The work that brings me the most satisfaction are the lessons I am able to create for the students where they are not sure which subject they are learning.  The students are to engaged in the lessons to realize what subject they are own and are having fun learning.  My goal for student teaching is to make sure all of my lessons are integrated and engaging for students.  I could help my classmates more by creating a group chat to answer and ask any questions we may have.
      I was able to find an article expressing why teachers should teach science in kindergarten.  It talks about the importance of helping students to build a solid science foundation with the basics to help set them up for success with science in their future grades.  The article talks about how kindergarten students are very curious so why not feed off of their curiosity with science.  This was a great article to read and I encourage you to check it out when you have a chance.  <https://www.science4us.com/why-teach-science-to-kindergarten-1st-grade-and-2nd-grade-students/>  My current event is about the Georgia's educational center and aquarium, who had a male octopus in their watch.  The octopus ended up being a girl who has 10,000 babies.  I could use this current event to help students learn about the life cycle of an organism, in this case it would be an octopus.  The students could also compare and contrast the life cycle of the octopus to the life cycle of humans.  I like this current event because it has videos students could explore and see first hand. <https://www.popsci.com/male-octopus-thousands-babies>
      By preparing my lessons I am following the NCTCS standard three, "Teachers know the content they teach."  I am also demonstrating the NCTCS standard four, "Teachers facilitate learning for their students," by using technology and having interactive task for students to collaborate with and learn.  In my future classroom I want to have integrated lessons and have my students to be so engaged in their learning that they have to stop and ask me what subject we are working on.  I want my students to have interactive task so they are engaged in learning and not bored.  I look forward to doing more with science during my student teaching experience.  I am researching more strategies to use while teaching kindergarten students science.  I look forward to seeing science taught more in classrooms and in my future classroom.
Resources:
https://www.science4us.com/why-teach-science-to-kindergarten-1st-grade-and-2nd-grade-students/
https://www.popsci.com/male-octopus-thousands-babies
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-standards.pdf